Airship Blues
by The Ultimate Person
Summary: In which an avatar and a CEO laugh, get nervous around each other, and maybe sort of kind of accidentally start to fall in love, with the added benefit of being 40,000 feet in the air.


**AN:** I actually wrote this a while back when book 3 was airing. Korrasami being declared canon really helped me with finally pushing this gem out. Hope you guys enjoy!

* * *

For some reason, the extremely expensive high-quality couches felt slightly more comfortable than the extremely expensive high-quality beds.

Korea let out a groan of frustration, her hands flying up to cover up her face. No matter what she did or where she went, sleep refused to come. She supposed that the last possible thing would be to attempt to punch herself unconscious, but what with having prior experience as a dumb 10 year old, she quickly threw that idea out the window.

Still lying across the sofa, her eyes wandered about the large expanses of the room. The center of the airship took up the majority of the living space, the walls covered with enormous windows and the ceiling reaching several stories up above her. But no matter how much she trained her eyes on the dimly lit steel panels, or focused her ears on the subtle humming noise that resonated throughout the entire structure, she couldn't bring herself to dose off. Whether it be from excitement, or restlessness, or just general anxiety, she wasn't quite sure. All she knew was that she looked awfully silly with her legs and arms sprawled all over the edges of the couch in different directions.

She let a gust of air. The fist-to-face thing wasn't sounding too bad at the moment.

Out of the nowhere, Korra could hear the sound of footsteps encroaching upon her. Her upper body sprung up in surprise, for she was certain that no one else would be up at this god forsaken hour. Before her was the dim light of a candle. Behind it was the dimly lit face of a certain business woman.

"Sorry. Am I being disruptive?" Asami said, as she was completely unaware that Korra was lounging about.

The avatar chuckled a bit, one of her hands scratching the back of her head. Not wanting to reveal to her friend that she was this close to witnessing the avatar punch herself in the face, she simply shrugged. "Don't worry about it. Just had a lot on my mind and couldn't sleep," she looked back up at Asami. "You too?"

The other girl grimaced, thin pale fingers drawing around the edges of the candle saucer. "Yeah. It's been long couple of days," she began to walk around the couch, eyes tentatively trained on one of the empty seats. "May I join you?"

Korra's eyes lit up at the mention, not expecting how welcome she'd be to the nocturnal company. "Oh yeah, sure!" she quickly readjusted herself, putting feet back on the floor and her back against the back cushion. "Make yourself comfortable."

Asami smiled at her made a small nod. The heiress settled into her seat, hands still closely caressing the candle. Up close, Korra could see the developing dark circles underneath her eye, a strange sight among her typically clear complexion. She didn't pay too much heed to it, seeing as just about everyone has been getting exhausted from the long trip. She turned back towards her. "So, what's on your mind?"

Korra perked up her eyebrows, leaning back more into her seat. "Too much," her gaze drew down, her hands settled in her lap. "I'm not really the smartest person, so I'm pretty terrible at sorting through these sorts of things."

Asami leaned forward, setting the candle onto the table. "I don't think it really has anything to do with intelligence. I think it's been a long day for a lot of us. Civilizations don't just get resurrected every other day."

"That's the thing though! How could you be given such a spectacular, near miraculous opportunity of joining something bigger than yourself and then just shoot it down like it was nothing?" she said in a sudden outburst, one that she didn't even expect from herself. She thought of the countless civilians, stubbornly turning down the possibility of an air nation as if it was something as annoying as jury duty. She sighed, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand. She let her back plop into the couch. "That and I suppose getting banished from an entire city kind of hurts a little."

"You seem a lot less bother by the last thing," Asami said, as she propped up against the sofa arm.

Korra grinned to herself. "Happens every other week at this point. Republic city needs me when it needs me," she looked back at Asami. "Though here am I being self-centered. How have you been holding up?"

Asami did a little shrug, her eyes looking up. "Well, just trying to cleanse the reputation of a horrifically soiled brand name while trying to dodge bankruptcy by the skin of my teeth." She closed her eyes, slowly trying to release her stress via controlled breathing. "I suppose things could be worse."

Korra laughed, shaking her head. She leaned forward, propping her arms against her thighs for support. She looked back at the heiress with a lopsided smirk. "Wow. We really are a mess huh? Who decided to put is in positions of power?"

Asami crossed her own arms, all while shaking her head. "Preposterous people. Insane, most likely."

The two of them paused, taking a moment to look back at each other. Without missing a beat, two of them cracked up, breaking the heavy air within the large expanses of the room. For an avatar that was born to bring balance to the world, and a woman with an empire tied to her name from birth, Korra was somewhat glad they could at least still find humor in their situation. She bit at the bottom of her lip, looking back up. "To be completely honest though, this actually is the most ... hopeful I've felt in a long time," she said, hoping that she was choosing the right words. "Like, even with all this crap piled up before us, I really feel like we're going somewhere."

Asami smiled back at her. It was a tired smile, but it was genuine enough to shine as bright as candle light. "I think I know what you're getting at here. I just really hope that I'm able to make some small contribution to it all."

Korea looked back at the girl like she was crazy. "Small?" She raised her arms up, spreading them as wide as possible as she tried motioned towards the entire room. "Small?"

Asami smiled and closed her eyes, realizing the small amount of silliness that came with her comment. "Yes, small. I suppose I was just getting worried that I was fading too much into the background and not doing as much I'm capable of doing."

Korra let her posture soften up more, leaning more in the direction of the heiress. "Honestly Asami, you have done more for us than any of us could thank for." She straightened her back up, her tone of voice becoming more solid. "More than I could ever thank for, really."

Asami lowered her eyebrows at that, looking back her with an expression that was asking for clarification. A corner of Korra mouth perked up. "I mean, after Harmonic Convergence, a lot of people started to keep a sort of distance from me. I don't know whether they thought I was in some sort of fragile state or in the middle of recovery, but there was a lot of backing off. Not that I can really blame them though," she said. They weren't wrong to assume such things. Mako, Bolin, even Tenzin held a different sort of air around her after the fiasco. And to be truly honest, she was trying to reel herself from the emotionally draining event. She kept her eye contact with Asami solid. "I guess I'm just glad that you didn't back off. I mean, I know that I can be a bit hard to deal with or handle sometimes. But I'm just really glad that you took the time to at least help me get my mind off of things, y'know. Just having your company has been really good."

Asami's widened just a bit. Korea was hoping that she wasn't weirding her off with all this emotional babble. She was immediately relieved when she saw the other girls face soften, as if she felt genuinely touched by the comment. "I actually don't know how to properly respond that. But I'm glad that I was of some help," she shrugged. "I guess when I saw you in this state of doubt, it just sort of reminded me of myself; Like you were unsure if you were really driving things in the right direction."

"Oh spirits, no car analogies please – especially if they all involve crashing and screaming. I don't think I can deal with metaphorical crashing and screaming."

Asami laughed, raising her hands up in a sort of mock defeat. "Fair enough, fair enough."

Silence fell after Asami's comment, letting the air gain weight once again. The candle every once in a while flickered, playing with the light and shadows that dimly radiated throughout the entire room. Korra's eyes drew back to her lap, where her hands were neatly positioned within her lap. In that moment, Korra felt cramped, despite having more than half a space of couch to maneuver within. She looked back at Asami, whose own eyes were focused off somewhere more far away. The avatar bit at her own tongue, nervous to ask something that was kicking around in her head for a while now. She never felt so ... Constricted around another person before, as she kept to her own little corner of couch. It was as if she was getting nervous over the very idea of scooting just an inch over the couch.

Korra cleared her throat, which caught Asami's attention. Avoiding her gaze, Korra spoke up, sounding a bit weaker than usual. "Hey, uh, Asami? Can I ask you something?"

"Hm? Yeah, of course you can," she said, her voice brightening up. She smiled again, her expression friendly and open to Korra.

Korra gulped. Damn it. Damn it. Code red. Abort, abort, abort. Korra was quick to understand that under common social conventions, one has to follow up with a question of proposing to ask said question in the first. She didn't really think that part through. Korra attempted to shake off any physical of evidence of appearing clammy, and faced Asami directly. "Is it socially acceptable for girlfriends to sit close together?"

Asami expression immediately broke, where she swears she could see her let out a small snort. _A snort._ Damn it. She screwed it up. It was bound to happen. The whole wording of the statement was in itself embarrassing, what with the phrasing being awkwardly put and the fact that Korra still wasn't exactly sure if she was using the word "girlfriend" properly. And now, she had a wealthy, beautiful, and gracefully mature young woman cracking a snort at her comment. By this point, she wished she took the self-knockout option.

Before Korra could say anything more, Asami leaned back, letting her hand lay against the top of the empty seat. "You don't actually have to ask for permission, you know. It's perfectly fine for you to sit closer."

Korra choked a little, not wanting to stumble on her words more so than she already had. "Yeah, I know." No, actually, she didn't know. She was a tremendously terrible liar. "It's just that I've never really gotten the chance hang with girls my age before. Or really any sort of girl that wasn't covered in fur and weighed two tons before. I just really don't want to mess things up."

"Honestly Korra, it's not really all that different if you were with Mako or Bolin." Asami paused for a bit. "Well, maybe a little different. It might be a bit gentler. Less sweaty, too."

Korra laughed, gathering more confidence to move in. Before she could completely shift over, she glanced back at her again. "Are you completely sure though? I'm an awfully touchy person. I cuddle. I don't want to accidentally encroach upon anywhere with strict anti-cuddling policies."

Asami rolled her eyes a bit, though not in a condescending manner. "I'll tell you what," the heiress proceeded to scooch over a little, patting the arm rest to her side. "I'll let you rest your head on the armrest. You can just lie down."

Korra was mentally jumping in joy, considering how her back was killing her. For a young physically fit reincarnate of a powerful spirit, she was feeling like an old man trying to plow a field with a broken back. She could really use the support. Korra smiled and happily scooted over. After scooting her butt in, she propped her legs back up on the opposite armrest, her head softly resting on top of the armrest. Asami didn't seem to mind supporting the avatar's back with her legs. Korra settled in, folding her hands together over her stomach. "This is actually really comfy. I don't know if you knew this, but you actually make quite a good pillow."

"Thanks. I've been working really hard to achieve maximum plushness." Now it was Korra's turn to snort. One of Asami's hands was left to play with the hair hanging over the edge of the arm rest, while the other lay across Korra's waist. Korra looked back up at the heiress's face. From the angle she was at, she was able to get a completely different perspective on the other girl's features, barely illuminated by the candle light. The almost orange-like glow played around her jawline, making it appear soft, as it drew shadows against the contours of her face and eyes. Her pupils glimmered. Her eyes drew back down at Korra, her lips curving upward, in a subtle, somewhat gentle manner. She looked content. She looked happy.

And by the spirits, she was so beautiful.

"Hey Asami?"

"Mm?"

"Thanks."

The woman's eyebrows slightly scrunched up, looking down on the other girl. "For what?"

For funding this whole crazy expedition. For the airship. For the overly expensive comfortable furniture. For the warm candlelight. For the equally warm company. For being there for her. For understanding. For caring. For just being.

Korra simply smiled, letting her eyes close. "Just ... For everything."

Afterwards, the avatar allowed herself to doze off, having been left in a comfortable position. However, before completely falling asleep, she swore she could feel a soft hand caress around her face, gently moving away her hair. She heard a sigh as the hand rested at her cheek, giving her a sensation of warmth and comfort.

"I should be the one thanking you."

With that, Korra fell into one of the best nights of sleep she had for a while.


End file.
